Instruments of Mercy is the second studio album by Portland, Oregon-based experimental hip hop trio Beautiful Eulogy, released through Humble Beast Records on October 29, 2013, in both free and commercial format. Like its predecessor, the album features a highly eclectic folk-hip hop fusion melded with numerous other styles such as electronic, indie, hymn tunes, and contemporary worship music. Courtland Urbano, the main producer of the trio, eschewed the use of digitally-generated effects and instrumentation in composing the music for Instruments of Mercy, instead relying solely on analog and natural sounds. A single from the album, "Vital Lens", was released as a digital download on September 10, 2013. The album fared well commercially, charting at No. 6 on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart, and was lauded by critics for its diverse and creative sound and deeply theological lyrics. PQ Monthly called the group "one [of] the most innovative hip-hop acts in Portland."
The song Exile Dial Tone is featured on the 2016 motion picture soundtrack God's Not Dead 2.
Background, recording, and instrumentation
Beautiful Eulogy was formed by rappers Braille and Odd Thomas and producer Courtland Urbano in 2011. The trio contributed a track to the charity album King Kulture in 2012, and featured as guest performers on the song "Misconception" by Lecrae from his 2012 Church Clothes mixtape. In the fall of the same year, Beautiful Eulogy released its debut album, Satellite Kite, to critical acclaim.
The trio revealed in an interview on October 28, 2013 that, due to their touring schedule and Braille and Odd Thomas's responsibilities as the owners of Humble Beast, they were delayed in completing their second album. For the recording, they stayed within the basic sound exhibited on Satellite Kite. Courtland Urbano in an interview stated that he personally dislikes an artist drastically changing style from their first to second album. However, the group did try to build upon and progress from its previous work. On Instruments of Mercy, Urbano avoided computer generated sounds entirely, instead using only live instrumentation, analog synthesizers, and natural found sounds. The album features sound effects such as dripping water, dial tones, wind chimes, rain, chirping birds, footsteps, and rustling leaves, and instrumentation such as electric and acoustic guitar, tambourine, drums, xylophone, piano, keyboard, strings, and glockenspiel.
Release and promotion
In preparation for Instruments of Mercy'''s release in October, Beautiful Eulogy released a music video for the song "Vital Lens" on August 20, 2013. The song itself was released as a single on September 10, 2013. The album came out on October 29, 2013, in both commercial format and as a free downloadon NoiseTrade. A second music video, for the song "Release Me from This Snare", was released on November 21, 2013, and a third video, "Symbols and Signs", featuring Humble Beast label-mate Propaganda, came out on February 19, 2014. On December 17, 2013, Instruments of Mercy was followed up by a compilation album, Instrumentals of Mercy, containing the instrumentals to each track from the album.
Reception
CriticalInstruments of Mercy met with a universally positive reception from critics, with The Christian Manifesto, Christian Music Zine, Indie Vision Music, and Jesus Freak Hideout all giving the album a perfect score. Nick Mattos of the Portland-based LGBTQ newspaper PQ Monthly glowingly reported: "Make no mistake, Beautiful Eulogy is a very religious bunch — and they're also one of the most innovative hip-hop acts in Portland."